NM WRRI Hosts Conference to Prompt Discussion about Evapotranspiration in New Mexico (continued)

By Jesslyn Ratliff, NM WRRI Program Specialist/ Water Science & Management Student Program Coordinator

The conference program began with a review of NM ET information needs before moving on to an overview of currently available ET measurement processes and modeling techniques. The program concluded with a discussion about specific New Mexico ET modeling efforts. Along with speakers from New Mexico, the program was fortunate to have ET experts from Idaho, Arizona, Alabama, Maryland, Colorado, and New York.

Twenty-five ET conference registrants participated in a field trip immediately following the day-and-a-half conference. The first stop was the NMSU Leyendecker Plant Science Center to view the climate station that is collecting data to be used for calculating reference ET. Dr. Salim Bawazir explained the uses and benefits of the weather station before taking the participants over to his alfalfa study site where his eddy covariance system is located. A local farmer has generously allowed Dr. Bawazir and his students to measure evapotranspiration on his alfalfa field. The data collected from this system will be used to calibrate remote sensing model-parameters to improve ET estimates.

Thomas Schmugge, Sam Fernald, Jesslyn Ratliff, NM WRRI; Jan Hendrickx and Dan Cadol, NM Tech; Zohrab Samani and Hatim Geli, NMSU, coordinated the conference and field trip.

To view conference proceedings, click here https://et.nmwrri.nmsu.edu/proceedings/